German and U.S. job woes mount

By Matt Daily and Jason Neely

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Global job woes worsened on Wednesday on bleak employment data from the United States and Germany, while microchip giant Intel (INTC.O) warned that slack demand for computers would hurt its revenue.

Intel's statement that fourth-quarter revenue would likely fall 23 percent from a year earlier followed news from retailer Marks & Spencer (MKS.L) that it would begin letting workers go.

That was further bad news from global companies just a day after aluminium maker Alcoa (AA.N) said it would slash more than 15,000 jobs and U.S.-Dutch petrochemicals maker LyondellBasell filed for bankruptcy protection for its U.S. operations.

Meanwhile, the Bank of England is expected to cut rates by 50 basis points to a record low of 1.5 percent on Thursday, according to economists polled by Reuters. And yet another business scandal surfaced -- this one in India.

A report by ADP Employer Services said U.S. private employers shed 693,000 jobs in December, up sharply from the revised 476,000 jobs lost in November and far more than economists had forecast.

The figures suggest the U.S. government's more comprehensive non-farm payrolls report, due on Friday, will show a loss of about 670,000 jobs, said Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers, which jointly developed the report.

The U.S. employment numbers had been expected to show half a million jobs were lost in December, pushing the 2008 total above 2.4 million.

In Germany, unemployment rose in December -- the first rise since February 2006 -- bringing to an end a three-year labour market boom as the global financial crisis hits companies in Europe's largest economy.